2012 R2 + SMB3?

If you use the SMB plus app to force SMB3 does that make any difference?

I was unaware of this app! I'll check now. I know that I am connected by SMB 3 based on the results of get-smbconnection from the Windows server, though.

Update: After installing the app, I'm gonna say no. All it does is force SMB3, which I don't need to do, or disable oplocks, which doesn't apply to me because it's SMB1/CIFS only.

Anyone have any experience with this? Would love to get this working!

SMB3 isn't fully supported yet: viewtopic.php?p=416481#p416481

So it's possible some of the missing support is required by Hyper-V.

I believe that VHD(x) over SMB was supported with even version 2.0 in Server 2012. I'll see if forcing that version helps. I'd love clarification of how it is "partially" supported and what is missing/present.

ReadyNAS OS 6 currently uses 3.0.x kernels. So to support Samba features that require a newer kernel, either the necessary changes need to be backported or NetGear needs to move to a newer kernel.

I'm not really sure how that applies to this issue, since we haven't really proven that this comes down to lack of support for a feature within SMB 3 specifically.

It may come down to support for administrative shares. I read somewhere (trying to find the link) that when you create a VM with files stored on a remote machine, it connects to the hidden admin share to create files and set permissions. I tested on another non-Windows file server where Hyper-V is working, an EMC VNXe, and found that I can hit \\vnxe\share as well as \\vnxe\c$\share. This does not work on the ReadyNAS.

Is it possible to test using symlinks on the ReadyNAS? Can I connect through SSH on the 4220 at all?

You might want to look up your issue and Samba. Someone may have already figured out how to do this when using a Linux box running Samba rather than a Windows machine for Hyper-V storage.

Go to System > Settings > Services and click on the SSH icon.

You will be prompted to confirm you want to enable SSH. After enabling it you can SSH in as 'root' (the superuser). The password for the 'root' user will initially be set to be the same as the password for the 'admin' user, but they are separate accounts.

OK, so it looks like the real source of this problem is lack of support for "virtual hard disk sharing." Articles that talk about the specific error, "The storage where the virtual hard disk is located does not support virtual hard disk sharing" are vague in what this actually means. One article specified this is a feature of SMB 3.01, another mentioned 3.02, but my VNXe's connection is identified as 3.00 and it works, so I'm not sure.

In case anyone else wants to try or wants to just add a hidden administrative share, here's what you do:

I faked an administrative share by connecting through SSH and modifying the /etc/frontview/samba/Shares.conf file. It's a standard config file for Samba, so I just added a block that looks like this

[c$]
path = /MY_VOLUME/parent
comment = "fake admin share"
guest ok = 1
admin users = "admin","DOMAIN\administrator"
writeable = 1

Below that, a block containing the destination share within parent

[vm]
path = MY_VOLUME/parent/vm
comment = "destination"
guest ok = 1
admin users = "admin","DOMAIN\administrator"
writeable = 1

Make sure you create the folders specified by "path" if they don't already exist.

I also created one to the root of my volume just so I could set permissions on the administrative share itself. This didn't help. The ReadyNAS follows Samba's rules and share$ is hidden, everything behaves as expected. Your entire configuration is overwritten whenever you save through the web console and there's no guarantee that an upgrade won't wipe this out.

The Samba version on the ReadyNAS is 4.0.13, so it's pretty new and 4.0.14 doesn't seem to address these issues. This is clearly not going to work but I'd love a better idea of what's missing. This would be a great thing for the 4220 to support!

I reached out to an engineer at Microsoft who works in the clustering and high-availability department. He sent back this:

"Hyper-V supports SMB3, and that could be serviced by either a Windows Server running the Scale-out File Server role, or with 3rd party NAS. As you’ve found, many vendors now support SMB3 and running Hyper-V… and we embrace that.

Looking at the error you are receiving, it appears you are attempting to do a Shared VHDX on the SMB share. In order to do this, there are some protocol changes. The server must support SMB 3.02 and some additional work to support Shared VHDX on top of that. So my guess is that the ReadyNAS supports SMB3, but not all the latest flavors to light up the newest features.

If you have contact with them, I’m happy to be looped in and I can help educate them on the requirements to support shared VHDX."

Anyone from ReadyNAS here who would want to talk with him about this? He asked I not post his contact info on the forum but I can make an introduction through email.